Images of the Roman gods in the museums of Upper Normandy

The Greco-Roman gods were an endless source of inspiration for artists of every era, and continue to fascinate today.But it is not always easy for the uninitiated to identify the characters or episodes that are represented. The aim of this theme-file is therefore to introduce the images and stories of the Roman gods, with examples from the antique collections in the museums of Upper Normandy. Many surviving ancient documents present the fascinating world of the Roman gods and shed light on the significance of every detail in these images.This file is necessarily limited, as it is based on the museum collections which themselves do not include all the known Roman deities (chiefly because of the random nature of archaeological finds); some major gods are therefore missing, including Jupiter’s wife Juno (Hera), the goddess of agriculture Ceres (Demeter), and the god of the underworld Pluto (Hades).But we hope that this file will provide a useful introduction to Roman gods and their images, and that visitors will enjoy identifying gods and mythological episodes when they explore the museums of Upper Normandy.